AGENDA
NOVEMBER
• Objectives:
– To demonstrate an understanding of the
events in Recitatif
3
– To understand Toni Morrison’s writing style
– To analyze imagery, time, symbols and theme
in a short story
– To understand an author’s effect on a reader
– To understand and become aware of one’s own
biases
– To understand the purpose of literary critical
analysis
– To understand the basic elements of literary
critical analysis
• Agenda
– Reading quiz
– Recitatif Discussion
– Intro to Literary Critical Analysis
1.
What are the two girls’ names in the
story?
2. Where did they meet?
READING 3. Who is Maggie?
QUIZ
4. The girls meet again several times
through out their lives, name one of the
places they meet as adults.
5. What can’t the two women remember
about Maggie?
• You have 10 minutes in your lit
SMALL
groups to do the following:
GROUP
– Come to a consensus about who
DISCUSSION
is black and who is white in the
story
– Provide specific (textual)
examples to prove your points
– Choose one person to present
your decision to the class
TONI
MORRISON
Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, in 1931 in Lorain (Ohio), the second of four
children in a black working-class family. Displayed an early interest in
literature. Studied humanities at Howard and Cornell Universities, followed
by an academic career at Texas Southern University, Howard University, Yale,
and since 1989, a chair at Princeton University. She has also worked as an
editor for Random House, a critic, and given numerous public lectures,
specializing in African-American literature. She made her debut as a novelist
in 1970, soon gaining the attention of both critics and a wider audience for
her epic power, unerring ear for dialogue, and her poetically-charged and
richly-expressive depictions of Black America. A member since 1981 of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has been awarded a number of
literary distinctions, among them the Pulitzer Prize in 1988.
From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1991-1995, Editor Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997
"Toni Morrison - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 25 Oct 2011 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrisonbio.html
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Why does Morrison use racially offensive language throughout the story?
“I am left-handed and the scissors never worked for me” What does this tell us? What does this tell us
about Morrison’s writing?
At the end of the orphanage section who do you think is black and who do you think is white? Point to
specific evidence in the section.
At the end of the restaurant section who is black and who is white? Use specific evidence from the
text to back up your answer.
On page 11 what is the purpose of Twyla and Roberta’s interchange?
“’Okay’ I said, but I knew I wouldn’t. Roberta had messed up my past somehow with that business
about Maggie. I wouldn’t forget a thing like that. Would I?”(12) Why is this important? What concept
or theme is Morrison continuing here?
After this section who is black and who is white? Evidence?
At the end of the section that ends “’ I used to curl your hair’ ‘I hated your hands in my hair’” Who is
black and who is white? Evidence?
“’What was she saying? Black? Maggie wasn’t black.” (15) why can’t Twyla remember this? Why is this
significant? What is Morrison trying to do here?
What is Morrison using Maggie as?
At the end of the picketing battle section, who is black and who is white? Evidence?
Why does the story end with those lines? What does Maggie stand for?
What other issues besides race does Morrison take on in this story? How do these other social issues
intertwine with the theme of race and racism?
What are the themes of the story?
What are the symbols of the story?
INTRO TO LIT
CRIT/ANAL
• It’s not enough simply to tie literary elements and devices back
the text itself or to the idea that they make things easier to
read.
• Why do literary analysis? How will this help with life?
• The following info is taken from the Sierra College Writing
Center page
– "Guidelines for Writing a Literary Critical Analysis ." Sierra
College Writing Center. Ed. Sierra College. Sierra College,
2002. Web. 25 Oct. 2011.
<http://lrc.sierra.cc.ca.us/writingcenter/litcrit.htm >.
WHAT IS A
LITERARY
CRITICAL
ANALYSIS?
• A literary critical analysis explains a
work of fiction, poetry or drama by
means of interpretations. The goal
of a literary analysis (as with any
other analysis) is to broaden and
deepen your understanding of a
work of literature.
– Saying “ I liked the Scarlet Letter
because it sounded good” isn’t
analysis
– Saying “ The Scarlet Letter’s message
of female empowerment still holds
true in today’s society” is analysis
• An interpretation is an individual
response that addresses meaning.
– Saying “ The symbols in the Scarlet
WHAT IS AN
Letter help the reader understand the
INTERPRETATION? plot” is not a strong interpretation
– Saying “The mother in Jamaica
Kinkaid's story "Girl" cannot speak
directly of her love for her daughter, so
Kinkaid uses details about a woman's
everyday life to convey her pride and
anxiety about her daughter.” Is a
strong interpretation
HOW DO YOU
DEVELOP AN
INTERPRETATION? • Interpretations are developed by an
in-depth examination of a text. An
interpretation often will be the
thesis of your paper.
HOW DO YOU CONDUCT AN "INDEPTH" EXAMINATION OF A
TEXT?
1. Before reading the work, make sure to examine the title carefully. Often the title is
a clue to
an important idea in the work.
2. Make sure you look up in the dictionary any words with which you are not familiar.
3. After reading the work the first time, ask yourself the following questions:
– What is the geographical, historical and social setting? How does this affect the
story or poem?
– Who is (are) the main character(s)?
– Who are the secondary characters, and how are they linked to the main
characters?
– Does the main character change? If so, how and why? If not, why not?
– What is the conflict? Can you trace the development and resolution of the
conflict?
– Who is telling the story? How does this influence the story or poem?
– In poetry, can you find a pattern of rime and meter?
HOW DO YOU
CONDUCT AN
"IN-DEPTH"
EXAMINATION
OF A TEXT?
CONTINUED
4. As you re-read the work, make sure
you can answer these questions. Then
ask yourself the following questions,
which may help you to discover
deeper meanings that will lead you to
an interpretation.
– Can you summarize the author's meaning
in one paragraph?
– Can you state a theme of the work in one
sentence?
– Can you identify any symbols or
metaphors? What do they mean?
HOW DO YOU
PROVE YOUR
INTERPRETATI
ON?
• You prove your interpretation by
finding a pattern of examples in the
literature that support your idea. You
find this pattern in the literary
elements, such as plot, point of view,
character, setting, symbols, tone, and
style…[T]he uses of language (rime,
meter and metaphors) are also
patterns that can support your
interpretation.
IF
INTERPRETATIO
NS ARE AN
INDIVIDUAL
RESPONSE, ARE
ALL
INTERPRETATIO
NS VALID?
• Because an interpretation must be
supported, the strength or weakness of
your interpretation rests on the
strength or weakness of your argument.
In other words, you must organize a
discussion that convinces the reader
that your point of view is astute.
– In this way a literary analysis is a persuasive
essay
• In a literary analysis evidence is found
mainly from the work you are discussing.
WHERE DO YOU
Secondary sources (published critical
FIND EVIDENCE TO analyses) may support your point of view
SUPPORT YOUR
as well.
INTERPRETATION?
– Many times research of outside sources
helps support the argument you are
making with the text.
– For example using a source about
Hawthorne’s distastes for puritan
society would have helped someone
writing about that argument
HOW MUCH
OF THE
STORY
SHOULD
YOU RETELL
IN A
CRITICAL
ANALYSIS?
• You do need to locate your reader to the
scene or section of the poem that you
are discussing; therefore, some plot
summary is necessary, but re-telling the
story or a poem is not considered an
analysis. You can assume your reader
has read the work.
• Any secondary sources must,
WHAT
of course, be documented.
SHOULD BE
Also, direct quotes should be
DOCUMENTED
documented. Unlike
IN A CRITICAL secondary sources, a
ANALYSIS?
summary of a literary scene or
event does not need
documentation. Typically,
MLA style documentation is
used.
UP COMING
LITERARY
CRITICAL
ANALYSIS
• Defend your interpretation of the
symbolism in the book, Beloved. You
must include an interpretation of the
symbolic meaning of the character
Beloved, and may include any other
symbols, as desired.